Who We Are

WHO WE ARE

Barry Wolins is a life-long waterman. A passionate surfer whose extensive career at the top of the surf industry has given him a wealth of knowledge on how garments need to perform under the most testing of conditions.

Originally trained as a pattern maker and designer, he worked his way up the ranks until he headed up a some well known international action sports brands and worked closely with some of the legends of the surf. Barry brought Quiksilver to market and was essential to Ripcurl success.

Barry knows how to build garments that move with you, and can take a beating while doing it.

Barry is known to lift a bit of iron every day to keep in shape for his sessions in the water. His two teenage sons keep him at a sports field most days. He’s on the pulse of athlete’s requirements in all seasons and conditions.

Donald Grieve has always been endurance athlete, originally a state level tri-athlete. For him, equipment needs to work just as well deep into the 2nd, 3rd and even 4th hour of effort. His nerdy love of reading and theory has resulted in him qualifying as a strength and conditioning coach, and spending some time coaching development athletes to compete at a state and national level.

Donald has led international product development, sourcing and manufacturing teams for global athletic and action Sports brands. He knows the best places to build stuff.

Most days he tries to get on a bike, or up a mountain with his dog. His wife, a Pilates instructor, says he needs to stretch more, but who doesn’t?

Andrew Hill is our All-American 6’3 boy-next-door high football player / wake boarder. He doubles as our resident rocket scientist and tech-geek. Early years were spent in Florida, in the ocean or playing soccer or baseball.

When the family moved up to North Carolina high-school football and basketball took center stage, which also introduced him to the inside of a gym. Drew still enjoys lifting to stay in shape but adrenaline is now fueled by a love of wake-boarding.

High school is also where he fell in love with Technology. A keen creative, his love of new technologies keeps him on the cutting edge, and as a result he’s worked for the past decade developing marketing and penetration strategies, as well as websites for multi-million dollar companies.

Drew’s endless curiosity has also lead him to invent, patent and develop some cutting edge technologies for the surf industry.

Bob Liddle We needed some SEO and E-commerce talent to round out the team. Enter Bob. 19 years doing SEO and e-commerce. Bob has taken a businesss – Kustom Koozies from a spare bedroom business to a national leader in screen printing and can coolers.

Bob grew up in North Carolina spending summers on the water, 8 hours a day skiing. His goal was to become a professional slalom skier. He lettered three years in soccer and was the high jumper and 2 miler on the track team.

Bob stays active playing Basketball weekly, running (a former marathoner), lifting weights and swimming. Open water distance swims are no problem for this guy.

It started with a casual chat amongst friends over dinner. Expressing frustrations finding decent, affordable, technical, training gear.
It evolved into a team with years of combined experience in the apparel and active sports industries, an idea to pool their knowledge and find a fresh approach to design, focusing on function and attention to technical detail at an affordable price. Oh yeah…….and it needed to look good.